Delivering healthcare digitally

There are increasing number of citizen centric health care consumer products on the market to support self-care management enabling individuals to engage digitally with their own health and care and the care of close family members. A number of emerging opportunities are taking forward a disruptive and transformative approach to deliver new models of healthcare. The opportunity for the Council, NHS and other partners is to look at how we support better integration around new pathways of healthcare. Health United Birmingham is a recent initiative and great example of this supporting Action G1 in the Birmingham Smart City Roadmap. It has just won £1m from the Prime Minister’s £50m Challenge Fund to pilot new ways of providing primary care.

“Digital Life Sciences has teamed up with Birmingham GPs to make it easier for patients see their doctors where and when they want to.

It’s part of a consortium called Health United Birmingham (HUB) that has won almost £1m from the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund to pilot new ways of improving access to general practice.

HUB is a partnership between two GP partnerships – Vitality and Bellevue – and Digital Life Sciences, a healthcare technology and change management company. It’s supported by Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Groups, Sandwell Council and Birmingham City Council.
It aims to radically change the way in which 60,000 Birmingham people access primary care. From July this year, patients will be able to:

• see GPs from 8am to 8pm seven days a week
• use instant messaging to chat to clinicians
• manage their care from their homes.

The pilot comprises a central hub which acts the single point of entry for 60,000 people. Technology is used to increase access to the hub. There is a digital channel through which patient records are stored and shared. The patient, the GP, the specialists and community workers can all see the patient’s medical records at the same time.

Patients can use instant messaging, or teleconferencing for consultations with a range healthcare professional to access their healthcare from home.

They can upload their care plans, monitor and record their blood sugar levels and exercise regimes, and choose to share this with clinicians and support staff at the touch of a button.
As it has already been proven that self-monitoring in this way reduces hospital admissions by 15 per cent, it is expected that the benefits to patients of extended hours and self-monitoring will be funded by the reduction in cost of patients using secondary care.”

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